German Patent Publication DE-OS No. 27 43 234 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,344 "Silk/Screen Printing Machine" in the name of S J D Ericsson) discloses a silk-screen printing machine in which the stencil is located slightly above the material to be printed when the machine is at rest. As the stencil is stretched during printing, a geometric printing error would normally be expected to result. This error is eliminated by imparting movement to the stencil or the printing surface relative to the material to be printed, this movement being opposite to that of the squeegee. This requires a mechanism which adds to the complication of the silk-screen printing machine.